“The Section on the assimilation
of what thinks it perceives,
with the source of perception.”
– Paul Harvey introduction to Yoga Sūtra Chapter One

“Kriyā Yoga is more about
working with the symptoms.
Aṣṭāṅga Yoga is more about
working with their cause.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 2

“Avidyā is anything else other than Vidyā.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 3

“We may have intellectual Vidyā,
but in reality we follow some deeper force of Avidyā.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 3

“When something is understood differently from what it truly is, it is called Avidyā.
What is changing is taken to be non-changing. For example the mind.
What is subjected to decay is assumed to be pure. For example the body.
What is leading to suffering is taken to be the source of pleasure.
What is not conscious is assumed to be conscious.
All these errors in perceptions have many possibilities.
But the ultimate stage of Avidyā is to assume that we are the Masters, not Īśvara.”
T Krishnamacharya on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 5

”Avidyā is the illusion of recognising:
the ephemeral as the eternal,
the profane as the profound,
pain as pleasure and
the silhouette as the source.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 5

“Until we see through the illusion of life,
we will be unable to see,
through the illusion of life.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 5

“Patañjali reminds us of the pitfalls of the illusion (Avidyā) of
recognising (Khyāti) psyche (Anātma) as awareness (Ātma).”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 5

“One of the artful illusions presented by the Citta,
is its ability to as if dress in disguise,
so as to appear as if the Cit.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 5

“The search for understanding is driven by misunderstanding,
though not always in the right direction.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 5

“Avidyā is the illusion of experiencing
what feels real, as if it is actually true.
However, that we experience a feeling as real,
does not in fact actually mean that it is true.
So how to discern as to whether a feeling
that we experience as real, is really true?”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 5

“‘Who’ is it that misidentifies?”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 5

“That’s our starting point…
This curious conjunction
of being Human and
yet human Being.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 6

“The arrangement of Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two involves four components:
1. Duḥkha – What is it that I want to avoid?
2. Avidyā/Saṃyoga – Association or from where has this come?
3. Kaivalya/Viveka – Where should we be in order to be free from this association?
4. Viveka/Aṣṭāṅga – What is the way?
What is the discipline that will give Viveka, not just for a moment, but there all the time?
This is the place of Yoga.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verses 16 – 28

“Through Avidyā we see two as if one.
Through Vidyā we know two is as if one.
Hence before there can be a state of Yoga,
there needs to be a process of Viyoga.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 17

“Better to be clear about being confused,
rather than being confused about being clear.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 24

“Avidyā and Freedom do not exist together.
Here Avidyā represents both the basis and attitude towards our action.
The aim of Yoga is to reach that state where our actions are not based on Avidyā.”
– T Krishnamacharya on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 25

“Some define their experience of life by seeking Duḥkha,
some by seeking Sukha.
The Yoga Practitioner sees both as Avidyā
and defines their experience of life by seeking
what lies beyond duality through unwavering Viveka.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 26

“Pratyāhāra is not feeding the tendency of the Citta to automatically form a positive, negative, or neutral identification with whatever stimuli the senses present to it. From that we can begin to understand how their external gathering activities stimulate our conscious and especially, unconscious choices.
From this we can begin to understand how the impact of this sensory process can lead us to travel in different directions and trigger different levels of response, often without us being really conscious of how deeply their input stimulates our psychic activities.
From these responses there will be the inevitable re-actions, again quite possibly unconscious and multilevelled, according to our psychic history in terms of our memory, habit patternings and deeper memory processes.
From those initial insights we can begin to understand and interact in how we can resist unconsciously slipping into the trance states that can so often culminate with the Kleśa manifesting fully in the entrancing dance of Udārā Rāga, or Udārā Dveṣa, or Udārā Abhiniveśa, the profligate children of Avidyā.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 54

“Feelings from the past remain eternally potent ravagers,
especially pervasive within the illusion of our present and
with it a tendency to recreate an old shape from our past,
whilst we are believing it to be a new shape for our future.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Four verse 27

“Sāṃkhya – Redefining the Marriage of Wisdom and Action –
Until the Dancer (Citta) deeply realises that
the Observer (Cit) of the Spectacle (Viṣaya)
is not interested in the drives (Avidyā) which animate the dance,
the Dancer continues to Dance.”
Sāṃkhya Kārikā Āryā 59

“When the mind thinks it is seeing rather than the Puruṣa there is Avidyā,
and this is the beginning of Duḥkha.”
– TKV Desikachar Religiousness in Yoga Chapter Six Page 85

“The Yoga Sūtra says that as we practice Prāṇāyāma,
more and more of the covering of the mind,
Avidyā, is removed and there is clarity.”
– TKV Desikachar Religiousness in Yoga Chapter Ten Page 137

“While it is used as a metaphor that the Kuṇḍalinī
is going up, really, it does not make sense.
If we say that Kuṇḍalinī is an energy that gives us truth,
then we have to a accept the fact that we have
two energies in life, Prāṇa and Kuṇḍalinī.
Some also say that energy is sleeping.
What is meant by this?
Many of these ideas, Im sorry to say,
are based on incorrect translations.
Kuṇḍalinī represents Avidyā,
and the absence of Avidyā
represents absence of Kuṇḍalinī.”
– TKV Desikachar Religiousness in Yoga ‘Various Approaches to Yoga’ Chapter Seventeen Page 248

“A Yogi is one in who Pariṇāma and Saṃskāra are in harmony.
When there is no harmony there is the wrong
combination of Pariṇāma and Saṃskāra.
This is known as Avidyā or not knowing a thing as it is.
The right combination is Vidyā.”
– TKV Desikachar on Sāṃkhya and Yoga

“Our action has two foundations.
One, Vidyā never leads us into trouble.
Two, Avidyā leads us into troubl
because of something we did into the past
influencing our present action.”
– TKV Desikachar France 1983

Question to TKV Desikachar on Pariṇāma:
“Change is universal but not the same for everybody.
Pariṇāma gives life to Saṃskāra.
Saṃskāra gives stability to Pariṇāma.
So there is an order in any change.
If there is no Pariṇāma or Saṃskāra there is no Vidyā or Avidyā.”
– TKV Desikachar France 1983

“We can summarise all the Bheda into three:
– Saṃskāra Bheda (division by tendencies)
– Pariṇāma Bheda (division by transformation or change)
– Avidyā Bheda (division by illusion)
They are not bad things, only different.
We need to recognise and do something so the negative differences don’t take us over.”
– TKV Desikachar France 1983

“Thus we can only know Avidyā through īśvara Praṇidhānā by action and its results.”
– TKV Desikachar France 1983

‎”Where there is Duḥkha, there is Avidyā.”
– TKV Desikachar 1995

“Duḥkha is the expression of a problem.
Duḥkha is an emotion,
it could be an illusion.”
– From study notes with TKV Desikachar England 1992

“Suffering is the starting point for the Yoga journey of four steps from:
the symptom (Duḥkha or suffering);
through to the cause (Avidyā or illusion);
to the path (Kaivalya or independence);
and the means (Aṣṭāṅga or 8 limbed path) for Viveka or discrimination.
This fourfold process is at the heart of Yoga, Āyurveda and Buddhism.”
– 108 Study Path Pointers

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